Letter: Americans are waking up to the perils of GMO foods

A recent McClatchy article published in The News on the upcoming referendum on GMO labeling in Washington state is useful in pointing out that 70 percent to 80 percent of commercial food in the United States contains genetically modified organisms.

The “No on 522 Coalition” is scaring voters with the preposterous claim of a $500 increase in the monthly food bill for a family of four, if the labeling law passes. Though the writer appears to show both sides, he misinforms us in saying the government has deemed safe the GMO foods already on the market. In reality, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t fund or conduct studies but simply takes the word of the biotech industry as gospel. These studies are biased. The fox is guarding the henhouse.

There are plenty of studies showing the deleterious effects from eating foods made by using a gene gun to blast disparate genes together into a seed, which is then grown with massive amounts of herbicide. Not only does this form of agriculture hurt the creatures eating the food products, but it encourages a monoculture that nature abhors, increases pest resistance and creates poisonous residue in the soil and water.

There is plenty of documentation for readers at the Institute for Responsible Technology’s website to spell out the real horror story of GMOs. They are not the world-saving miracle they are painted to be by Big Agra. President Obama has not acted on his campaign promise regarding labeling. Obama has actually greased the revolving door between GMO companies and Washington, by appointing Michael Taylor as U.S. food czar. Taylor worked multiple times for Monsanto and also had a stint with the FDA during which he overruled FDA scientists and declared GMOs “substantially equivalent.”

There are plenty of people waking up to the shills and the barons of greed. Docility about fluoridated water, geoengineering and GMOs is over and education is afoot.